New photos released of Ryan Wedding, former Olympic snowboarder turned alleged drug kingpin wanted by FBI

(NEW YORK) — Authorities have released new photos of Ryan Wedding, a former Canadian Olympian snowboarder turned alleged drug kingpin who is on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list.

Wedding, 44, is wanted for “allegedly running and participating in a transnational drug trafficking operation that routinely shipped hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from Colombia, through Mexico and Southern California, to Canada, and other locations in the United States,” the Los Angeles FBI office said Monday on X while releasing a newly obtained photo of the fugitive.

“Additionally, it is alleged that Wedding was involved in orchestrating multiple murders in furtherance of these drug crimes,” the statement continued.

The FBI said the photo is believed to have been taken in Mexico during the summer of 2025.

In it, he is seen lying in a bed shirtless, with a prominent tattoo of a lion on his chest.

The U.S. Embassy in Mexico also shared a photo on Monday of Wedding that hadn’t been previously released. In the photo, released on social media, he is wearing a green shirt and has a different haircut and facial hair. The post did not say when or where that photo was taken.

Wedding has been on the run for several years. He is believed to be in Mexico, being protected by the Sinaloa cartel, authorities said.

The Department of State is offering a reward of up to $15 million for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of Wedding, whose aliases include James Conrad King, Jesse King, “Giant”, “Public Enemy,” “Boss,” “Buddy,” “Grande,” “El Jefe,” “El Guerro” and “El Toro,” according to the FBI.

FBI Director Kash Patel has called Wedding a “modern-day” Pablo Escobar.

The fugitive was previously indicted in Los Angeles federal court on multiple charges, including running a continuing criminal enterprise, committing murder in connection with a continuing criminal enterprise and assorted drug crimes.

He and his alleged second-in-command are accused of ordering the murders of multiple people in Canada to achieve the aims of the criminal organization, the FBI said.

New charges announced last month allege he ordered the killing of a witness in the federal case. The victim was shot in the head multiple times at a restaurant in Colombia in January, according to U.S. Attorney for the Central District of Los Angeles Bill Essayli.

Wedding and 18 others, including his lawyer, were charged in the new indictment with orchestrating the murder, according to the DOJ.

Wedding competed for Canada in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, where he placed 24th in the parallel giant slalom, before allegedly running the billion-dollar cocaine operation from Mexico for more than a dozen years, officials said.